Having spent almost thirty years of his life in the Kronos
Quartet, David Harrington talks about the feelings and intentions
of “Kronos” as if he is on a first-name basis with the
musical entity he founded.
Celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, Kronos is UCLA’s
Artist-in-Residence for the 2002-2003 season.
While last year’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence Elvis
Costello limited his UCLA appearance to two concerts (one early in
the school year and another near the end), Kronos promises to at
least double that with three upcoming concerts in addition to a
Sept. 13 concert that was devoted to Mexican music off their latest
album, “Nuevo.”
The concert featured the quartet doing their album (something
normal in the pop world but unheard of in classical music), making
sound effects (violaist David Hutt spun some kind of noisemaker on
a string, which produced a bird call), collaborating with
percussion group Tambuco, and sets by clearly non-classical acts
Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles (an all-female mariachi group) and
Plankton Man (a DJ also featured on “Nuevo,” whose out
of place music emphasized the disparity of taste between Kronos and
their mostly older classical crowd). Their show also departed from
classical concerts in their use of lighting and sound design (they
bring their own designers to every show they do) to bring the music
to life.
“We were thinking of this whole album as a film and the
experience of creating a sonic place was really important for us on
this album,” said Harrington, who plays first violin in the
group. “One of the inspirations I had on this album was the
layering of time, culture, and experience, and there’s no
place that I’ve ever felt that more strongly than in
Mexico.”
Reinventing the string quartet is a mission Kronos seeks to
fulfill at every concert. The modern arrangement of two violins, a
viola and a cello doing multi-movement pieces is an invention
largely attributed to Joseph Haydn in the 18th Century. Since then,
composers such as Beethoven and Shostakovich have written some of
their best music for quartets.
Despite the looming tradition, Kronos has not feared to take
swings at the Berlin Wall of stodginess.
They’ve collaborated with rock artists (Sigur Ros, Cafe
Tacuba). They’ve been known to wear clothes less formal than
accepted concert attire at Royce: Harrington, sported a leather
jacket and red T-shirt. Not to mention the inclusion of distortion
and prerecorded sounds, like the noise of a Mexican street which
the band recorded itself, and took tracks from Mexican TV for the
show in their music. Traditional classical music focuses mostly on
fidelity of the acoustics. Harrington filtered his voice through a
vocoder to woo the audience with a call of “groovy
baby.” They are a string quartet trying not to sound like
one.
“On the opening track of the album, I wanted to see if it
was possible to turn Kronos into a brass band that was coming out
of a small transistor radio,” Harrington said. “On
another track, I wanted to see if it was possible to turn us into
an accordion.”
Next they plan to merge their music with visual images, a field
they’ve entered before having collaborated with composers
Philip Glass (“Dracula”) and Clint Mansell
(“Requiem for a Dream”). In a concert called
“Visual Music” (slated for Feb. 15, 2003), Kronos hopes
to change not just how we hear music, but also how we see it.
“I want to find a way to bring together the visual culture
that we’re all a part of with the world of music in a way
that feels natural and organic,” said Harrington, not wanting
to give away too much except a promise to play with film.
Being such an important progressive force in classical and
cultural music means Kronos will be around only so often. While
starting out, Kronos partnered with Mills College, where they met
composer Terry Riley and defined who they were.
“(Being at a university) adds credibility and it provides
access to venues,” said Hank Dutt, the group’s violist.
(John Serba and Jennifer Culp fill out the quartet with second
violin and cello respectively.) “Back then, we didn’t
have the schedule we have now. We were just starting out. Now we
travel five months out of the year.”
Music students often benefit from master classes, taught by
professionals, as well as creative collaborations with successful
artists, such as Kronos. While Costello missed the opportunity for
such community input, Kronos hopes to contribute more.
“That hasn’t been determined, but I’m sure
there will be interactions with various students, composers, and
dancers on campus,” Harrington said. “That hasn’t
been totally figured out yet, but we will find a way to be directly
involved on campus.”